Met seeks out agency help to boost image

The Metropolitan Police Service is seeking an advertising agency in what could mark its return to anti-crime campaigns after a four year absence.

The Met has placed a tender in the Official Journal of the European Community requesting applications for the “supply and delivery of advertising agency services covering Met campaigns, but excluding recruitment and media buying”.

The service has run pitches over the past few years which have not led to an agency appointment. It has used freelances to run its recruitment campaigns. In December 1996, it appointed CDP to carry out consultancy work, but the agency did not create a campaign.

Last year, the Met spent about 500,000 on advertising (AC Nielsen), though this was mainly on recruitment advertising. It appointed The Media Business in September 1997 to buy media.

The Met’s public image in London has been damaged in recent years, particularly over its failure to bring the killers of Stephen Lawrence to justice and the damning MacPherson inquiry into the case which accused the service of “institutional racism”.

No one from the Met was available to comment on the review.